City Urged to Include Tiny Villages in Pasadena’s Homelessness Plan

The City was urged Wednesday to include the creation of a tiny home village in Pasadena’s Homelessness Plan to address a perceived lack of inadequate interim housing for local homeless. 

The Human Services Commission meeting Sept. 14 related to the development of the city’s Homelessness Plan, which will serve as a guiding document for the City’s response to homelessness in the coming years.

One resident said the motel voucher interim housing program is inefficient and costly. 

Tiny village projects utilize detached one or two-bed dwellings of less than 100 square feet, typically complete with air conditioning, heating, nearby laundry facilities, outdoor eating areas, restroom and showers. Outdoor security is also usually provided. 

“Tiny homes as interim housing for unsheltered persons experiencing homelesness have distinct advantages over [motel vouchers], our city’s primary interim housing model,” said Sonja Berndt in her comment, read by city secretary Jane Whitmore. “Some of those benefits, advantages, are as follows: intensive, on-site case management services, health, mental health, substance use disorder treatment, housing navigation, job counseling.” 

Berndt pointed out that tiny villages have strong support from the community as well as the Human Services Commission, which made a proposal for the creation of tiny home villages some two years ago.

“This commission submitted a proposal for a tiny home village to the edtech committee nearly two years ago. Mayor [Victor] Gordo did not allow the proposal to be agendized at that time and it was not agenzed at the Edtech (Economic Development and Technology Committee) until last June,” Berndt claimed. 

Jennifer O’Reilly-Jones, Homeless Programs Coordinator at Housing Department said the city’s Housing Department is open to the creation of tiny villages. 

“Over the past few years we really focused on motel vouchers as a readily available option to get shelter.”

“We are certainly open to the idea of tiny villages,” said O’Reilly- Jones.

O’Reilly-Jones agreed with the public comment that in terms of interim housing and emergency shelters, the city needs a variety of options to meet the unique needs of each population.

Last August, The Edtech Committee members gave their feedback on the creation of tiny home villages in the city. At the meeting, some members of the City Council including Housing Director William Huang said they prefer converting motels to homeless housing than building tiny villages in the city.

The committee as requested by Vice Mayor Andy Wilson however directed the Housing Department to look for a possible pilot location for a tiny village, saying given the size of the unhoused community in Pasadena, all options, including the creation of tiny villages, must be considered.

There was no draft Homelessness Plan discussed at the meeting but as per city staff, it will be presented to the Continuum of Care, a network of local stakeholders and the City Council come December after a series of listening sessions. 

Survey: City’s Permanent Housing Program Has Greatest Need for Improvement

During the meeting, a survey concerning current programs for homelessness  conducted by CityWise, a local policy and planning consulting firm, was also presented to the commission. 

Out of the 216 survey responses, 35 percent said street outreach worked best among three parts of Pasadena’s existing homeless response system. 34 percent said Access and Connection to Services worked best while only 28 percent said Emergency Shelter and Interim Housing worked best.

Under “Areas to Consider for Improvement,” 62 percent said permanent housing has the greatest need for improvement among Pasadena’s existing homeless response system, followed by mental health services, which 40 percent chose, and emergency shelter and interim housing at 36 percent.

Out of the total respondents, which include people who experienced homelessness, service providers and community members, 50 percent said permanent housing has the greatest need for expansion among Pasadena’s existing homeless response system. 40 percent answered mental health services while 36 percent chose emergency housing.

Number of Homeless Drops

The number of homeless individuals in Pasadena was down to 512 in the latest count of 2022, from 904 in 2012.

In the last three years, the numbers indicated that homelessness in Pasadena has steadily decreased, according to data provided by the  Housing Department. 

Meanwhile, as of July 2022, Friends In Deed, a local non-profit that provides supportive services for homeless residents in Pasadena has helped 110 households avoid homeless through its eviction prevention and rental assistance program, which provides short-term and medium-term rental support to individuals and families on the brink of becoming homeless.

In 2021, the organization aided 63 households through the same program. 

For more information on Friends In Deed, visit: https://friendsindeedpas.org